BECOMING BETTER WRITERS – ON THE USE OF AUTHENTIC READING MATERIALS IN TEACHING SECOND

Page 1

Innovative Methods and Practices of Academic Writing and Writing Instruction

BECOMING BETTER WRITERS – ON THE USE OF AUTHENTIC READING MATERIALS IN TEACHING SECOND LANGUAGE WRITING

Ola Majchrzak¹, Łukasz Salski², Marek Molenda³

¹University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland ²University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland ³University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland

In 2011 a new first year writing course was started at the institute of English, University of Łódź, Poland, whose aim is not only to develop students’ knowledge and skills but also to improve their attitude to writing as they come to university with little writing experience and negative attitude. In the first semester the students are required to write a description, narrative, and autobiography; these genres are practiced with the use of reading excerpts from original literary works. The change in the students` attitudes towards writing is evident from previous studies on such aspects of the course as peer review and journal writing (Majchrzak & Salski, presented at FLOW 2013, EWCA 2014). The focus of the most recent questionnaire, which was conducted among all first­year students of English studies at the end of the winter semester 2014/2015, was on the use of authentic reading materials in teaching second language writing. The following issues were investigated: 1) the role of authentic texts in the process of learning to write, 2) the way in which the texts should be distributed (in­class work or homework assignment), and 3) whether students would like to use journals to jot down their reflections concerning the assigned texts or whether the topics of their journal entries should depend on the students. The preliminary analysis of the students` answers allows to state that the students did not expect that during writing classes they would be presented (and asked to discuss) excerpts from original literary works; still, they were positively surprised. They reported that the assigned texts had a positive effect on their own papers not only as an illustration of genre requirements, but also as inspiration. As the students confirmed, the use of authentic reading materials helps improving attitudes towards writing.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.